Five Pregnancies for the Sullivan-Kent-Luthor Clan
by legendarytobes
Summary: Set in the Family 'Verse that started with "Family Traditions." The stories behind the pregnancies that bind Clark, Chloe and Lex together as a family.


I. Regrets, I've Had a Few...

"Hey!" Chloe said, beaming for him.

Clark smiled back and sat next to her on the bed. Oliver had let him in, grumbling that being gone in the year three thousand was no excuse not to check a damn clock when he got back. Clark apologized as best he could, but he promised Chloe he'd always check back in with her when he got back to Metropolis. Part of it was everything was getting more dangerous now, running around with Greek Gods or in the future. It was like his life had always been insane before but once he came out as Superman, it upped the bizarre danger quotient to levels even he never could have imagined. The least he could do was check back in with his best friend and make sure she was still okay.

That after how much they lost and kept losing, the baby was still okay.

"How are you feeling?" he asked, handing her a stuffed panda.

She narrowed her eyes at it. "You can't keep doing that."

"Well I was flying over China and they have this national attraction and he's really cute, right?"

"Every time you visit in between missions, you drop off a new stuffed animal. I'm not even at six months and the kids has like half a dozen toys. You're going to spoil him."

Clark arched an eyebrow at that. "Him?"

"Well Ollie and I don't want to know but I think a 'him,' yes. Call it a mother's instinct."

He broke out laughing. There was no one on Earth except maybe Lois or now Diana whom he figured was less likely to have an inner June Cleaver. It was so not Chloe, but it oddly suited her, the way she glowed. Would that she'd stay laying on this sofa for three more months than visiting Metropolis, waddling around Watchtower and trying to fight the Crisis. He and Ollie could agree on things once in a while and they both knew Chloe had never heard the world "vacation" in her damn life.

"So you're maternal now? Mother Goddess?"

"No, it's a boy, and don't you dare peek!"

Clark blanched. He was good with his X-ray vision, but it did scare him, that possibility of now peeling the skin back correctly and seeing Chloe naked instead. Some things could not be unseen. "I'd never. You'd kill me."

She smiled again and set the panda on the floor. "I would. You've been gone to long again."

"Only three weeks. It was worth it, Kara's home and we needed her."

"Good, it's good for you to have her. Family's important."

He groaned. "You're going to end up some hippie granola chick."

"Never, I just mean you two don't have the best track record but you're all you've got really, even with Conner. It's good you found her again, that's all I meant."

He nodded and reached out, resting his palm on her belly and smiling at the kicks, marveling at how strong they were. Had his sibling been like that with his mom? It was getting so hard to remember. "Do you have names?"

"I'm mulling them over and they're also surprises, but I have a good one, promise," she said, winking. "So, we've gone through business, Mr. Kent."

"Uh-huh?"

"What terrible, stupid cable movie do you want to watch till dawn just so you don't have to feel so weighed down."

"I do not feel weighed down."

"You just got dragged into future Kandorian bullshit. You're tired and you need to rest and I do not want all the talk to be about the Crisis or babies."

"So now you don't want to talk about being a mom, sure."

"I'm being generous, just for few hours, we can just be us, right? So do you want Die Hard or Rocky?"

He grinned and kissed her forehead, hoping Ollie wasn't around. "Die Hard. Have you met me?"

"Many times," she countered, putting her hands over his on her stomach. "Thanks for seeing me. It'd be easy, you know, to forget each other or just be work friends, to only see each other at the Watchtower."

"You're doing something amazing."

"You'd like to trade places?"

"No, I just think...this kid's so lucky, that's all."

She nodded and squeezed his hands. "And he'll have a great Aunt Lois to teach him about hair bands and make him a black belt and an Uncle Clark to teach him to cook and maybe take him flying?"

"Definitely. I'd always do that. In fact-" He stopped there, surprised that he wanted to wish Chloe's son was his too. That was nuts. He was happy with Lois and she was happy with Ollie. They'd been friends for what felt like forever. He was just tired and having his blood family around again was playing with his brain, making him wish for things he couldn't have.

He wasn't human.

Not even close.

This was what he never got, and he'd just have to adjust and be the best uncle he could because that was more than he ever could have hoped to have, especially with their ups and downs.

"What?"

"Nothing, just remind me that when I go out that I've been eyeing this teddy bear at FAO Schwartz and..."

II. Sweet Child of Mine

"You're not cheating are you?" Chloe asked, glaring back at him.

He frowned back at her from his corner of the bed. "No, I promised and I'm shitty at biology anyway."

She rolled her eyes and put her hands over her stomach as if they were lead-lined. Chloe wasn't even that pregnant, just past three months and barely showing. Of course, it was old enough that if he chose to X-ray her, then he could have, sure. He just wanted to be surprised so far, until Chloe broke down in this stupid surprise insistence of hers. They needed to paint the nursery up right on the farm. He needed to know blue or pink; he was not into yellow or mint green. No, God, never green. She'd loosen on this soon, he was sure.

"I think, even if you are, there are some things you'd recognize. So what gives?"

"I don't know. I just think the whole thing keeps blowing my mind. I...now I'm glad I visited so much with Jonathan."

"Gee, thanks."

He sighed and kissed her. "I love you too."

"Good because I am not a Kryptonian brood mare. This is not some service I give out."

"Well, you apparently are really easy."

She snorted. "Champagne once and then, okay, I've been really happy since my Pulitzer. It was nice to enjoy each other."

Clark smirked back at her and stroked her shoulder. "Many times a night and you take advantage of me and my stamina anyway, Chlo. I just felt bad enjoying this the first time. I loved seeing you grow and then visiting with you both once Jonathan was born, but I always felt bad, like it wasn't my place."

"You were always the godfather to start. You had a place and things got hard, but it wasn't about you."

"I was over a lot, Chlo. Ollie reminded me of that a lot after you broke it off."

"I left after he started eyeing Dinah, but our problems were our own and never about you."

"He said-"

"Ignore him," she commanded, curling into his side. "I never thought I could be this happy, not ever, and yet I'm still upset."

"I love you."

She rolled her eyes and pointed first down the hall toward their son's room and then at her abdomen. "Oh, everyone can tell that. Trust me, Boy Scout."

"I hate that."

"I know."

"Then," he said, trailing kisses down her throat. "Why are you upset."

"God, you better not do some weird in utero Irish twins thing. Just not in the mood. Morning sickness is killing me here. So no."

"Never?"

"I'll let you know once I sleep through the night again. I just...Conner's a good kid, Clark."

He sighed. He should have known exactly where she was going with this. "And he's my brother, mostly, and we're not. I agreed to Thanksgiving, right? That's two months away and I don't have to worry or think baout interacting with Lex."

"Don't say it like that."

"Like what?" he asked, trying to look neutral and serious.

"Like 'cockroach.' He's been good with Conner and he wants to try."

"Conner and Jonathan can hang out. Jonathan loves his older brother or whatever. I'm great with that."

"I take him over weekly to the mansion library and you pout the whole time and warn me about labs and evil. Jonathan likes him too."

"Jonathan is six and likes access to all those books," he said, rolling over, his back to her. "Lex stole from me, violated me. He hurt you and your mom. He damn near blew up Metropolis, made Lana a walking radiation wasteland."

"Oh you really do not want to bring up her name in our bed."

Clark swallowed. Chloe wouldn't hurt him, wouldn't rush for Kryptonite, but she didn't have to. She was more creative and if she kicked him to the sofa long enough, he'd die of other things. "Not like that. I just mean that Lex can't be trusted and you know that."

"Alexander almost killed you and Martha both. He's more Conner than this Lex is the last one. I'm not saying be oblivious. It's just if Bruce hasn't found anything on him of villainy since the damn Crisis and now he's helping so many people hurt by Lionel? Then just accept what the proof says."

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because he hurt all of us and if we let him, I know he'll do it again." He sighed and turned back over to stroke her hair. "I have more to lose now and I won't."

Chloe sighed and burrowed back into him, the detente reached for the night. "And maybe he does too."

III. Surprise, Surprise

Clark blinked back at Lex, not understanding what was happening. He couldn't process this, didn't even understand how it made sense. Oh God, did that mean he was poisoned by Brainiac again? Was this some weird paranoia dream?

Lex, for his part, looked like if he could waddle up off the bed that he'd be strangling Clark, himself. "Welcome home. I hope John Stewart appreciated you working with him off-world for so long. Do you know how hard it is to deal with Jonathan, Lily, Conner and a scared to death Chloe for four months?"

He did his lover the favor of blurring out of his costume and talking it out with him in just jeans and a grey t-shirt. There was something about the cape that felt weird and distracting in their home, like nothing serious could be said with the "Superman" act between them. He still didn't join him on the mansion's massive bed.

"I'm so confused."

"When aren't you?" Lex huffed.

Oh this Clark remembered. This he hadn't missed. Those barbs and jabs; Lex in a snit was the worst. "No, I was gone to Rigel Seven and everything was fucked up but fucked up in a typical way now things looks super fucked up and you're not...help me out here."

Lex sat up and pointed to his stomach which at this point Clark really, really hoped was distended due to some weird botulism. "Well, I think 'fucked up' is as apropos a term as any. Congratulations, Clark. For a guy who was afraid he'd ever be compatible with humans, you're three for three."

Clark blinked and decided as pissed as Lex was that it was not the time to also gripe that his DNA was techincally four for four when you counted Conner. "No, see, I left and you were having some stomach issues and Emil was testing you but probably ulcers from LuthorCorp stress and now you're pregnant?"

Lex rolled his eyes. "I love Sullivan for her intellect. Days like this remind me I love you because you're cute, Clark. Yes, exactly, knocked up, with child, expecting...do I need to go on?"

Still beyond confused, Clark finally inched over and sat on the. He wasn't ready to touch the very noticeable bulge but at least his mind was beginning to process at least a little. "I did what now?"

"Clearly, Chloe didn't do that. It's not her power. God, between the three younger kids you'd think you were on a mission to repopulate Krypton on your own."

"You're a guy."

"Yes, points for observational skills. Emil says that he thinks Darkseid was being cute when he put me back together."

"Oh, wow, that's oddly and specifically petty."

"Well, to be fair we never slept together before I died so it's possible the rocks did it to me as a bonus, but doubtful based on my previous incarnations medical records and what Tess could dig up about the cloning project I came from. This seems to be a fun addition."

"But why would he?"

"Who was going to be the host, Clark? For Darkseid, who do you really think he wanted? A sixty year old tycoon or the last Kryptonian in our time stream. Oh, I think he was planning. That doesn't matter now. Now, congratulations, you're going to be a father again."

"Huh so, uh, the Hell?"

"Articulate. I guess I wasn't much better when Sis explained it. She thought it might go better from her than Emil, and I grant that much is true. Chloe just stared at me for three days. I've never heard her so quiet. Also, remind me to buy her an island. She's had all the kids' usual drama, Perry to please, and me being a neurotic mess."

"She won't want an island. She'll want a satellite or better tech for Watchtower. Chloe's always pitching Bruce and Ollie upgrade ideas that I don't understand."

Lex smirked, "Done, nothing says I'm sorry I was whiny, needy bitch like hardware."

"Needy?"

Lex rolled his eyes and leaned up and kissed him, doing things with his tongue that probably weren't legal in Kansas. Pulling back, he added. "You weren't here. Miracle of fucked-up life and you weren't here and she wasn't the only one stressing the Lanterns could have you out for over a year and you missed her!"

"Her?"

"Yes, her. I'm not into surprises. I need to plan. Anyway, names haven't been picked but her. You missed four months of this crazy ride and I wanted you here."

"Chloe helped right?"

"Conner and Chloe worked very hard to keep me cheered up. Sis may have offered to pop in but she mostly makes me throw things. The point is that I missed you, and I love you, and if you do this again I will kill you."

Clark didn't laugh. Lex was glaring at him in a way that indicated he meant the threat. He also knew where to find an awful lot of Kryptonite. "I'm sorry?"

His lover sighed and stroked his cheek. "Don't be sorry, just be here. Oh and you can get up at five a.m. with Lily. She's up with the damn sun and Sullivan and I are wrecked."

"I did just return from a civil uprising. I am pretty tired."

"Oh, I'm sure are you being kicked hourly by a Kryptonian in your appendix?"

"Right, good plan, I'll just be on extra dad stuff duty from now on," he said, lying down with Lex and resting his hand over him. It felt no different than with Chloe and Clark had no idea how anything worked anymore. They just stampeded over "impossible" all the time in his family. "I love you."

"Oh you do."

"And thank you."

"Oh you bet."

"And really you don't look fat and-"

"Clark, stop while you're way,way behind."

IV. Here It Goes Again

"Chloe, you're the best, really," Megan said and Chloe accepted the other girl's hug.

Pulling back, she noticed how dark the circles under her eyes were in her human guise. She was blinking almost non-stop and Chloe bet that she hadn't been sleeping much. Nope, she knew this story well. Pregnancy sucked to go through and she'd been sick and tired and cramped twice now, thanks Clark. It was worse with Lex because he'd never stopped complaining, not one day, until Mori was weaned. Oh he adored his daughter and doted to ridiculous levels (no toddler needed a pony), but he had complained about the indignity of it all the moment Emil confirmed the diagosis.

Funny.

He'd been so complimentary of her with Lily. Maybe it was harder to talk about that much vaunted glow when it was your own feet you couldn't see.

So, no, she'd been through the boot camp on hormonal Luthors, and even if Megan was a Martian with as much strength an endurance as J'onn or even Kara and Clark, Chloe wouldn't wish that burden on anyone.

She smiled back up at her daughter-in-law. "I'll sit with him. You go and enjoy patrol or a girls day or just beating up a pillow, I'm here for it."

Megan frowned and pushed the braids back from her face. "He's not that bad."

"How badly do you want out of this penthouse?"

"Badly," she chirped. "Also, the baby said thanks too. She likes you a lot, says you're funny."

Chloe forced her smile to stay strong. She wasn't sure what it meant that the baby at five months along could think, actually had been able to at two. That was neither a human or Kryptonian trait, but J'onn explained it was typical for Martians. It just seemed so odd, even for her. For not the first time, as hard as she was trying to hide Conner and the baby from the parts of the League who wouldn't want a hybrid born, Chloe worried about what exactly she was protecting.

Not that Megan and Conner weren't anything but honorable and good heroes, but still?

She could already think and have opinions?

Wow.

"Great, then let Grandma Chloe take care of it."

Megan hesitated but then Conner's bell rang, and she was gone in a flash of white, clearly taking her exit route where she could get it. Chloe shook her head. God did she know the feeling. Walking into his bedroom, she pulled out her bag and handed him a can opener, some sardines, and also a bag of orange circus peanuts. Lex's cravings hadn't been that odd, but Conner prefered a mix of food that she mostly blamed on Kryptonian DNA. Sugar and fish just sounded nuts together.

"You're a life saver there, mom."

She smiled at the joke. Chloe wasn't, not really. Hell, Tess had always been more in that role, but she'd been protecting him for over a decade too. It was nice to have the recognition, even said tongue-in-cheek. "Eat slowly, you don't want indigestion, trust me."

"But it gets less shitty right?"

"Well you're past morning sickness but then hormones go crazy at six months. I swear to God Lex was always grabbing one or both of us to go and-" she blushed. "Nevermind. It's just that you're going to be pretty hot and bothered soon."

Conner blanched understanding what she was saying. "What?"

"Oh it was bad. If he wasn't mopey he was raring to go. It's a good thing Megan's not human, all I'm saying."

"Yeah, I...can I ask you something?"

She was still smiling at him, and she felt with how often she practiced her big fake ones that she should work for Disney World at the ticket desk. "Sure."

He sighed and looked down at his stomach. "I...don't freak out."

"It can't be weirder than when you confessed, sweetheart."

He paused and bit his lip. "She can talk to me."

Chloe's jaw worked and she forced her mouth shut before she regained enough composure to answer. "Huh?"

"She talks to me. I mean, at first Megan and J'onn could talk to her because of their abilites, but now the baby talks to me telepathically all the time. She's so smart it's almost scary."

Chloe swallowed and patted his hand. "But it's okay right? She's not in pain or scared or sick?"

"No, she just talks a lot."

Chloe rolled her eyes and hugged him. "Well, she is a Luthor, right? Have you heard Lionel pontificate?"

"Unfortunately."

It hurt to keep that look planted on her face, that plain encouragement. It scared her, whatever was cooking in their and she hated herself for it, but she needed to quiz J'onn again, make sure whatever was going on there was Martian typical, although she wasn't sure what they do if it weren't.

"She likes you."

"Megan said that."

"She says you're nice."

"Megan said that," Chloe finished, looking down to his stomach and speaking, although, she wondered if soon the baby would read her thoughts. "You don't have to Tom Sawyer me, um, I mean flatter me to get me to help."

"She wouldn't."

"Oh I'd do that in her place," Chloe admitted, stroking his stomach. "Family, right? And I'll always take care of you. Trust me, you don't want to see what happens when people piss me off."

Conner laughed. "Now she says you're her favorite."

"Oh, and you already have excellent taste. Let me tell you more about your Grandfather Clark-"

V. One More Time

"Thanks," Chloe said, sipping the Gingerale Lex set by her side of the bed. "So, are you my knight in shining Armani all morning?"

Lex nodded and slipped next to her under the sheets. "It'll get easier."

"I forgot how much this sucked. I've done it twice and you'd think I'd be used to it. Two months in, and I feel like I'm being ripped apart, can't keep anything down."

He nodded and gripped her shoulders more tightly. "It's been over twenty years since you did this."

"Like I age."

"Memory makes things fade."

"Like pain?"

"Some," he said, and over the six weeks since they'd found out that Chloe was pregnant, that he'd of all people managed it, he'd debated on bringing this possibility up with her. These records were old and long since burned to ash, nothing even Tess would have known to bring up with Emil. "We need to talk."

"I know about Lana, you told me that part. You had to hide that the pregnancy couldn't take."

"Yes, and I've debated talking about this with you but this is our daughter and you're a realist at heart, Chloe."

"So you haven't brought this big bomb to Clark?" she snapped.

He kissed her, lingering there longer than was just for comfort. He barely restrained himself from touching her most days. She was too sick and weak for anything, always vomiting or sleeping. Still, he'd done this and this was his child bonding them in a way he thought the two of them would never share. A surprise after so long.

He just hoped not a mistake.

"Lex?"

"Lana's body couldn't handle my mutation."

"Obviously, but I'm a meta right here, even have the JLA uniform to prove it. It's different."

"You've traveled to Europe recently."

"Not following the segue," she snarked. "So?"

"What happens if you plug in a cord without an adapter?"

"The currents don't match and?"

Lex sighed and waited for her to get it, and she would have faster if she wasn't working at grand champion levels of denial. "Shorts out. We both heal but you're empathic and I'm not. Maybe you're so sick because two supercharged immune systems are fighting it out."

"No, that's not what this is. I can heal anything."

"And I've lived through desert island isolation, poisons on more than one occasion and-"

"That's nuts. We wouldn't have gotten this far if it wasn't going to work," and she was sitting up now and glaring at him.

He didn't flinch; she'd never cowed him before, not in decades of their verbal judo and not now. "Maybe we never got this far before because it wasn't supposed to work. I...if things go badly, I only blame myself."

"Because I'm so normal," she said, letting him hug her close. He couldn't protect her the way Clark could, wrap her up in a steel cage for all intents and purposes, but he'd weather her pain if things turned out wrong. "Sometimes I hate what happened. I mean, not that Clark came, but I just want five minutes alone with Zod and Brainiac and tons of Kryptonite and computer viruses."

"Fair enough."

Chloe looked up at him and he nodded back at her, pretending not to see the tears in her eyes. She wouldn't like it if she'd noticed weakness. For Clark she broke down and, to be honest, sometimes he'd do the same. For each other, don't show weakness, just push through. It was their deal, the only way to keep everything running.

Be practical.

She surprised him then by closing her eyes and starting to glow, something simple and rosy. Once in a literal different life, she'd gone nova for him, saved his life, such as it had been, back in Detroit. One of those millions of confusing steps that had led them here.

"I can heal anything; I can win this."

Lex smiled but he didn't feel it and kissed her on the lips. "I've learned it's foolish to bet against you."

"Exactly, besides my powers are better."

"Flash over substance," he said, settling into banter, that he could offer her. "If...I'll be here, Sullivan, always."

"For a few thousand years, right?"

"Always," he finished, spooning up next to her. "Luthors...I always say what I mean."


End file.
